VIII.5. PRIORITIES THAT URBAN DESIGNS REVEAL

STREET DESIGNS, VOIDS AND GIANT SPACES

In front of the Basilique Saint-Denis, the royal mausoleum (12th century)

Majesty on a human scale, forgotten gift of kings

• France's first straight street and point of focus: the space before the Saint-Denis Basilica, the royal mausoleum

• Paris's first straight street and point of focus: rue de Birague

• The path that links kings with their ancestors: rue Saint-Denis

• Straight streets and monarchy

• The place that is ancestor of all: place des Vosges, once place Royale

• Royal places multiply

• A design that was inconceivable elsewhere: the Grand Axis

• The Grand Axis as model

• Straight streets and points of focus, key to the city's grandeur

Fear, unlikely promoter of urban grandeur

The street that leads from the center to the church (Notre-Dame de la Gare, 13th, 1860)

• Rebel areas' sudden mutation

• Open the town to the army

• A military network crisscrosses town

• The new arteries' military purpose

• The "masterly line" that cuts through the working-class east

• Blue-collar neighborhoods' grand open spaces

*    *    *

Next,

VIII.6.

Classic art as a social weapon